LABOUR IN POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81857, 4 October 1906, Page 3

LABOUR IN POLITICS.

A FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE. THE MEMBER FOR DERBY SCORES. Received 3rd, 10.23 P-m. London, August 3. The Amalgamated Society of Rai'way Servants, in conference at Cardiff, afer a heated debate, resolved by 37 to 22, that Parliamentary candidates should sign the Labour paity s condition to follow the Whip.

Mr Bell, general secretary of 'heSociety, and Member for Deiby, defending his refusal to accept this position, threatened to appeal to his conau.uents for their continued support. Possibly his opponents at Derby Would be Lord Ribblesda'e't son, Dr. Stanton Coit, editor of Ethics, or some similar genuine typt of Labour men- It would be hypocrisy to nominate capitalists as Labour men against men spending their whole time in the interests of Labour. Received 3rd, 10.23 p.m. London, October 2. Mr Bell, continuing, said the Right Hon. John Burns was attacked for accepting £2OOO salan, yet Snowden. the Socialist, made fifteen hundred tf two thousand a year writing for news papers. The party's rcprcsen aiivcs were unable to go to the colonics owing to the shortness of the recess, yet Mr Mac Donald had gone, because In represented two Liberal newspapers. "Regarding 'he new ru'e,' 1 said Mr Bell. '"I challenge anyone to say 1 ever, in my Parliamentary career, committed any act -against the interest of Labour. If 1 have not don< so, what mor? is required:'' Mr Bell concluded by pro e-ting that Trades Union funds w<-io going for the maintenance of members o! the political party of Trade Union iits, able to co-operate with any par y willing to help them, but to attemp' to' amalgamate a Socialist otgani-a-tion and a trade unionist was tiki mixing oil with water. A resolution to compel Mr Bell t' sign the party's consti.ution was de fcatcd by forty-three to five. Mr Bell, interviewed, said the Socialists had changed fheir tactics They had adopted a new rule, which did not have immediate effect, "b-il contemplates handing myself body and soul to the Socialist section aftet the present Parliament ,nhen I. as a candidate must swallow their nostrums or lose the Amalgamated S ciety's financial support, but I will be faithful to the Derby standard. The Independent Labour party ha*. drawn first blood, and Lab'ur Liber alittn must acknowledge .he scratch."